Engadget RSS Feedhttps://www.engadget.com/tag/Twitch/rss.xml
https://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif?cachebust=trueEngadget RSS Feedhttps://www.engadget.com/tag/Twitch/rss.xml
en-usEngadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronicsCopyright 2017 AOL Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only.https://www.engadget.com/2017/08/17/twitch-filter-overwatch-and-hearthstone-streams/https://www.engadget.com/2017/08/17/twitch-filter-overwatch-and-hearthstone-streams/https://www.engadget.com/2017/08/17/twitch-filter-overwatch-and-hearthstone-streams/#comments

Overwatch and Hearthstone fans will now find it easier to discover livestreams most relevant to them after Twitch introduced new channel filtering options for the popular Blizzard titles. From today, viewers can open a new menu that appears at the top of each directory, which allows them to select channels based on what on hero a streamer is playing, as well as the opportunity to filter by game mode, player rank, number of wins in Hearthstone games.

Twitch has nailed down the start of its Starcade marathon... and unlike many of its other marathons, it won't just involve playing episodes back to back. It'll stream the arcade-themed game show on Shout! Factory's channel starting August 28th at 2PM ET. The focus is on playing all 123 episodes digitized from the source tapes, but there's a modern twist: Geek & Sundry host and streaming veteran Erika Ishii will introduce games and provide context. You shouldn't be lost if you're too young to have played the games outside of an emulator.

Twitch's desktop app is ready for primetime after spending a few months in beta. The company has just launched the full version of the application, and it comes with the various features it added to the original communications platform it acquired last year. In addition to being able to do whatever Twitch on the web can, the desktop app has exclusive offerings, such as a Dark Mode that makes watching streams easier on the eyes at night.

Sony has been hinting at a big version 5.0 firmware update for the PlayStation 4, but... what does it entail, exactly? Eurogamer has an idea. The site has obtained release notes that hint at at least a few tangible upgrades. To start, PS4 Pro owners will have the option to broadcast their gaming on Twitch at a brisk 60 frames per second. That's nothing new for the PC crowd, of course, but it's a big deal if you want to showcase a fighting game or shooter at the same frame rate you see on your TV.

Tom Wheldon started streaming on Twitch as JurassicJunkieLive two months ago. He was an intrepid tinkerer and a veteran video creator who started making YouTube videos before it was the cool kids' multi-million-dollar industry. Wheldon regularly discussed video games, so Twitch felt like a natural evolution of his online presence -- his channel quickly earned a following of about 100 folks, some of them tuning in every Friday to watch Wheldon scream his way through a horror game.

Last week, Wheldon booted up Outlast 2 for his regular "Frightday" stream, and he became Twitch legend.

Starcade, the '80s TV show that had participants compete in arcade video games, will be back by the end of August. No, not as a reboot, which is in the works, but as a Twitch marathon. The video gaming platform has teamed up with Shout! Factory, the studio that acquired the rights to create the reboot, to stream all 123 episodes of the original show. Starcade ran from 1982 to 1984 on TBS and featured arcade classics like Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Galaga and Centipede.

Twitch marathons try to target different demographics, and an upcoming one specifically caters to anime and manga fans. The video streaming platform has teamed up with Crunchyroll for its first ever anime marathon, which will run from 6:30PM ET on July 27th up until August 1st. Twitch will reveal all 15 titles it plans to stream during the five-day event on July 21st. But we know that the list includes Mob Psycho 100, Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid, and Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers and one of 2016's biggest hits, the figure skating anime Yuri on Ice.

Even with the advent of Twitch, broadcasting mobile gameplay footage has been finicky for awhile. Samsung wants to make it easier with its new Game Live app for recent Samsung Galaxy handsets, as spotted by SamMobile. So long as your device is running Android 6.0 or newer, pushing your gameplay to Facebook, Twitch and YouTube shouldn't be too much leg work. You can even use your mic to chat with friends if you want, and save up to 4GB or 200 minutes of gameplay -- whichever comes first -- in a throwback to Game Recorder+. Compared to its music app and email attempt, on the surface at least, this seems like a piece of Samsung software you'd actually want to use.

Watching other people play video games is a big business. At any time, you can hop on Twitch and see gamers take on Demon's Souls, Pokemon, and even Sudoku. It's not all video games, either, with Let's Robot and Instapainting exploring internet-controlled robots. Last May, software developer Mike Roberts created StockStream, a Twitch channel that encourages viewers to vote on which stocks to buy or sell using Roberts' own $50,000 stock portfolio. Now, Roberts and his trading game have been acquired by Cheddar, the "millennial business news" network that broadcasts from the New York Stock Exchange. StockStream will continue, though its balance will double and the portfolio extended to " commodities, industry portfolios, indexes, and other asset classes," according to a Cheddar blog post.

Driving giant RC cars around a soccer field and using them to bounce an equally gargantuan ball into the net sounds like the ultimate extreme sport. Unfortunately, Faceit and the X Games will only allow competition in a virtual version of that this year. Of course I'm talking about Rocket League. If you're cool with that, the pair have partnered for the Rocket League Invitational, which will be held in Minneapolis during ESPN's annual extreme sports festival.

As useful as the Twitch mobile app can be, it still falls short of what you're used to on the desktop, especially if you're a broadcaster. Would you believe that you have to switch apps just to stream live? Thankfully, it's shrinking that gap today. It's starting to roll out a Twitch app overhaul that adds some of the features you take for granted while refining the interface. For creators, the biggest deal is simply direct mobile streaming -- you can livestream to your channel without any go-between software. While phone-based broadcasting was certainly possible before, this could easily lead to more IRL streams from your favorite streamers.

Twitch Partners get a lot of perks, including extra emotes, 60 days of past broadcast storage, financial support and the ability for fans to subscribe to their channels for $5, $10 or $25 per month. Starting this week, Twitch Affiliates -- streamers who make money on the site but aren't yet Partnered -- will also be able to collect monthly dues from their most dedicated viewers. Affiliate streamers will have the option to offer subscriptions at all three tiers, alongside one custom emote per payment level.

B-movie lovers rejoice, for social video platform Twitch is set to air a Mystery Science Theater 3000 marathon lasting a mind-numbing six days. The stream, which features 38 classic episodes, will air on Shout! Factory TV's new Twitch channel from June 26 to July 3.

The comic sci-fi show, which emerged as a cult favorite despite two network cancellations, follows hapless host Joel Robinson as he's trapped by mad scientists in space and forced to watch some of the worst B-movies ever produced. Viewers are not only treated (subjected?) to the appalling films in their entireties, but also to the running commentary of our sorry protagonist and the two robot sidekicks he's built to keep him sane (which, in the face of absolute fiascos such as Manos: The Hands of Fate, is no mean feat).

Twitch and Blizzard are teaming up in a big way this year. First up, if you're a Twitch Prime member you've got some loot boxes coming your way for Overwatch. "Starting June 20th, Twitch Prime members will receive an Overwatch Golden Loot Box containing a guaranteed [note: emphasis is Twitch's] legendary item, along with three additional in-game items like emotes, voice lines or character skins," according to the Twitch blog post. And more on that note, Prime members are going to get 10 more loot boxes this year.

There's an additional avenue for non-Partnered Twitch streamers to make money. Now, in addition to earning money via Bits, Affiliate streamers can earn a five percent revenue share when viewers buy the game they're streaming, directly from their channel. "All Affiliates are automatically enabled to start earning from game sales starting today," according to a press release. "They only need to be playing a game that is available for sale on Twitch for a purchase button to appear on their channel page."

Twitch Prime subscriptions are more than a little handy. If you already have Amazon Prime, it lets you watch your favorite game stream ad-free (and support a favorite streamer) at no extra charge. However, it's only been available in a handful of countries so far. That changes today -- Twitch has made Prime subs available in over 200 countries and territories. So long as you can score an Amazon Prime or Prime Video subscription membership, you can throw your weight behind one subscription-enabled channel every month. You'll also get perks like free games, including the Twitch-exclusive PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds clothing that arrives on June 9th.

Ever since the start of Twitch Plays Pokemon, we've seen gamers collectively play everything from Dark Souls to a claw machine, beat every Pokemon generation and create modern art. And now with Stock Stream, Twitch viewers can play the stock market in the best way possible -- with someone else's money.

While Twitch has been busy expanding the breadth of what you can watch on its platform, Microsoft has been quietly improving how you watch and broadcast with its Beam service. Just to get it out of the way, Beam will henceforth be known as "Mixer." There's a PR-speak reason for the change in nomenclature, but it doesn't really matter. What does is how the service is improving. Specifically, Mixer now offers co-operative streaming and broadcasts in 4K UHD.

Now that Twitch is making a bigger deal out of pre-recorded videos, it's competing more directly with services like YouTube -- and that means adding the kind of playback controls you take for granted elsewhere. Accordingly, the service has introduced a reworked video settings menu that adds speed controls. You can slow all the way down to 0.25X to relive a game-winning moment, or ramp up to 2X if you're skipping through the slow parts.

On May 26th, video streaming platform Twitch will celebrate a site-wide holiday called "TwitchUnity" that celebrates diversity and inclusivity. It plans to highlight channels on its front page that "exemplify a positive culture" that day, and it's encouraging streamers to generate relevant discussions. The platform is also releasing an official emoji for the event, which you can see in the image above. If you want to personally support the effort, you can buy the special t-shirt Twitch is releasing for the event or check out the dance-a-thon it's conducting. All proceeds from both efforts will be donated to Amnesty International's fight for human rights around the globe.

May 15th is a beautiful day for Mister Rogers' Neighborhood fans. Starting at 3PM on the 15th, Twitch will begin streaming all 886 episodes of the beloved kids' show. The broadcast will last for 17 days on the Mister Rogers channel, ending sometime on June 2nd. Since the show ran from 1968 to 2001 on Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), expect to see lots of episodes you've never seen before, including those that were only ever aired once. Twitch will kick off the event with something other than its first episode, though: it will start by broadcasting Fred Rogers' famous Senate testimony to celebrate its 48th anniversary earlier this month.

It sounds like Twitch doesn't want its new sneaker show to be its only stab at interactive programming. In the eyes of chief operating officer Kevin Lin, the ideal TV experience on the platform would be one where the story changes from one episode to the next depending on user feedback. "We'd want to identify really progressive studios that are willing to take a gamble and not release something in a big dump like most digital platforms these days," Lin told Recode. "[Someone who] will work with us and say, 'week to week, we're going to change this thing. We're going to somehow make it a little more interactive.'"

Now that Twitch is helping its community of streamers grow into professional broadcasters and expanding into original content, the popular social video platform is also ready to move beyond the gaming world and flip the switch on some new, regularly scheduled programming. On May 11th, Twitch will premiere a weekly, live and interactive show called FreshStock, celebrating everything there is to love about sneakers and sneaker culture.

If we've learned anything from experiments like Twitch Plays Pokemon, it's that a large part of the streaming site's success lies on the enthusiasm of its community. Twitch viewers don't just watch streams, they participate by flooding their favorite streamers chatbox with memes, emoji and a never-ending march of inside jokes. When the company launched the Twitch Uploads beta, the company encountered a problem: there's no chatroom for pre-recorded videos. Today, Twitch is taking steps to fix that, introducing a chat mode for uploaded content that locks messages to specific moments in the video.